| CURRENCIES: Dollar Lower Before Rate Decision; Yen Rallies On Paulson
The yen rallied sharply Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he's watching the dollar/yen exchange rate very carefully, sparking speculation that the recent yen weakness will be addressed at the meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers next week. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday, Paulson said he's watching the yen's value versus the dollar in foreign exchange market trading very carefully and he would discuss the dollar/yen exchange rate with his Japanese counterparts at the upcoming G7 meeting. He reiterated that a strong dollar is clearly in the U.S. interest. "U.S. dollar longs have been absolutely cleaned out before the [Fed interest-rate decision] this afternoon and this sets the stage for some interesting scenarios," said Brian Dolan, director of research at Forex.com, a division of Gain Capital.
Economic News SUMMARY, February 7
Civic association Health Policy Institute (HPI) thinks that the draft law on public health insurance companies is incompatible with the legislation of the Slovak Republic. HPI says it infringes the basic principles of the rule of law, and violates the principle of power distribution. It not only introduces legal uncertainty but also brings retroactive regulations and discriminates against some entities on the market, suggests HPI. The Health Ministry sent the controversial bill to interdepartmental review last week. The bill transforms state-owned health insurance companies Vseobecna Zdravotna Poistovna (VsZP) and Spolocna Zdravotna Poistovna (SZP) from their current form of joint-stock companies into public institutions. It also includes a regulation according to which a health insurance company is a joint-stock company established for a purpose other than to do business." Motor Fuel Prices in Slovakia Moderately Down as of February 1
As of February 1, the average retail price of 95-octane petrol decreased SKK 0.06 to SKK 34.69 per liter compared with January 19, the Slovak Statistics Office informed SITA on Thursday.
Dollar Depressed Though Wholesale Data Strong
As the last few scraps of US data for the week ran across the wires, the currency market was already occupied with events in other countries that better sated short attention spans. However, today's wholesale sales and inventory data holds greater implications for the world's largest economy than many may expect. Looking to the charts, the action in the dollar index illustrated the interconnectivity of the international currency market. Launching off of overnight support at 84.65, the trade-weighted asset rallied 35 points only to fully retrace the whole move in the New York session. In EURUSD, the pair jumped 65 points to come within stones through of the range top. Offering the opposite, GBPUSD plunged over 150 points to 1.9540 after its own central bank decision. Traders continued to flood back into the carry Thursday, sending USDJPY on a 65 point run to 121.45 and USDCHF over 100 points higher to 1.2515.
IDEXX Laboratories Announces Fourth Quarter Results
WESTBROOK, Maine, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) , today reported that revenue for the fourth quarter of 2006 increased 15% to $192.2 million from $167.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2005. Adjusted for the impacts of acquisitions and changes in foreign currency exchange rates, revenue for the fourth quarter of 2006 increased 11% over the same period of the prior year. Earnings per diluted share ("EPS") for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 increased 25% to $0.75 from $0.60 for the same period in the prior year. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS for the fourth quarter were $0.68, an increase of 6% compared to non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS for the same period of the prior year. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS including share-based compensation expense was $0.62.
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